From Thatcher (and Pinochet) to Clinton? Conservative think tanks, foreign models and US pensions reform

Political Quarterly

Volumn 71, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 202-210

  Béland, Daniel ^a   Waddan, Alex ^b  

^a ÉCOLE DES HAUTES ÉTUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES   (France)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SUNDERLAND   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0034164977     PISSN: 00323179     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-923X.00295     Document Type: Article

References (13)

1. 1 See e.g. Desmond King and Mark Wickham-Jones, 'From Clinton to Blair: The Democratic (Party) Origins of Welfare to Work', Political Quarterly, 1999, pp. 62-74.
2. 2 According to Henry Aaron and Robert Reischauer, this change to the retirement age in fact represents a 13 per cent benefit cut: see their Countdown to Reform: The Great Social Security Debate, New York, Century Foundation Press, 1998, p. 101. On the 1983 reform, see Paul Light, Still Artful Work: The Continuing Politics of Social Security Reform, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1995.
3. 2 According to Henry Aaron and Robert Reischauer, this change to the retirement age in fact represents a 13 per cent benefit cut: see their Countdown to Reform: The Great Social Security Debate, New York, Century Foundation Press, 1998, p. 101. On the 1983 reform, see Paul Light, Still Artful Work: The Continuing Politics of Social Security Reform, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1995.
4. 3 This is illustrated by the fact that the designation by the 1999 Trustees Report of 2034 as the year the fund would go bankrupt represented a two-year stay of execution from the 1998 Report: 1999 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Fund, Washington, 30 March 1999.
5. 4 In Sweden, 18.2 per cent of the Swedish population is currently 65 or over, and it is calculated that by 2025, 25.7 per cent of the French population will be so. In the US, even at the later date, it is estimated that the elderly will constitute only 19.2 per cent of the population: US Bureau of the Census, IPC/95-2, Older Workers, Retirement, and Pensions: A Comparative International Chartbook, Washington DC, US Government Printing Office, 1996.
6. 5 For a presentation of all the different proposals, see Aaron and Reischauer, Countdown for Reform, pp.120-47.
7. 6 Milton Friedman has proposed a purely voluntary saving scheme: see 'Social Security Chimeras', New York Times, 11 January 1999, p. A 21.
8. 7 Peter Ferrara and Michael Tanner, A New Deal for Social Security, Washington DC, Cato Institute, 1998.
9. 8 Steven Teles, 'Pensions, Social Citizenship and the Ubiquity of the State: The Relevance of the British Privatization Experience in the United States and Beyond', workshop on Social Policy and Devolution, Brandeis University Center for German and European Studies, 12-13 March 1999.
10. 9 See John Plender, 'Ownership and Pensions', Political Quarterly, 1998, pp. 395-403.
11. 10 'A Real Solution to the Social Security Crisis', Testimony of José Piñera before the US House Committee on Ways and Means, 11 February 1999, p. 18. See also 'Empowering Workers: The Privatisation of Social Security in Chile', Cato's Letter No. 10, Cato Institute, 1996.
12. 10 'A Real Solution to the Social Security Crisis', Testimony of José Piñera before the US House Committee on Ways and Means, 11 February 1999, p. 18. See also 'Empowering Workers: The Privatisation of Social Security in Chile', Cato's Letter No. 10, Cato Institute, 1996.
13. 11 See Stephen Kay, 'The Chile Con: Privatising Social Security in South America', The American Prospect, July-August 1997, pp. 48-52.